Natural History Museum Getting Glassy New Pavilion

Local firms CO Architects and Mia Lehrer + Associates are both working on renovations to the North Campus at the Natural History Museum near USC, and now comes word of a new pavilion at the museum. Meet the Otis Booth Pavilion, which comes thanks to a $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation. A 60-foot-high glass structure, the pavilion faces Exposition Boulevard. Here's how the press release describes it: "Rising over redesigned terraces, gardens, walkways, and common areas, a soaring pedestrian bridge that goes through the Otis Booth Pavilion transports visitors from a promenade connected to Exposition Boulevard." The LA Times reported earlier this week that a new giant whale skeleton that will grace the pavilion--those big bones should gin up the museum fun for the kids. The Otis Booth Foundation is one of legacies of Franklin Otis Booth, Jr. (1923-2008), the great-grandson of General Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times.